Sam Mitchell says Raptors wanted him to take a different approach with Bargnani

“Sometimes, I got on a guy’s ass until he was basically like, ‘coach, c’mon,’” Mitchell said. “And I would say, ‘thank you, I wanted to see how long it was going to take for you, because I only wanted to get that out of you. I wanted to unleash that fire inside.”

About an hour after he said that, a player whose fire he could never fully ignite — in part, he suggested, because management disapproved of his methods — was likely lost for the year. Toronto announced Andrea Bargnani is expected to miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury.

The 27-year-old was injured during a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers last week.